June 30, 2005
War of the Worlds
You would cry too if it happened to you.
I don't know about you, but my favorite Spielberg story is the one about how the rubber shark sucked so bad in Jaws that the greenhorn director had to shoot around it and, by keeping it hidden, actually arrived at a more effective horror movie. From his first blockbuster, Spielberg understood the secret of suspense, and he's been using that technique ever since. In fact, the entire War of the Worlds trailer campaign can be summarized by that tactic: Delay the money shot ... as ... long ... as ... possible.
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Posted by Peter Debruge at 10:10 PM | Comments (10)
June 29, 2005
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Willy Scissorhands.
"I'd give anything in the world just to go in that ah-may-zing factory." The words come out the mouth of a withered old geezer, but the sentiment's universal. Who wouldn't want to (re)visit Willy Wonka's factory, with its chocolate rivers and lollipop trees, as "reimagined" by Tim Burton? And considering that Charlie and the Chocolate Factory reunites Burton with his kookiest star, that's just icing on the proverbial cake.
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Posted by Peter Debruge at 12:32 PM | Comments (0)
June 28, 2005
Fun with Dick and Jane
Not to be confused with the new Tom Cruise movie.
Bonnie and Clyde. Mickey and Mallory. Honey Bunny and Pumpkin. But Dick and Jane? I love Hollywood's killer couples as much as the next guy, but do we really need to see bedbuddy bank-robbing duos reduced to the level of ... a Jim Carrey movie? And would it kill the spastic elastic man to act normal for a change? I mean, Eternal Sunshine made my 2004 top 10 list, but the sight of Carrey flailing about while sticking up a local Starbucks is just plain painful.
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Posted by Peter Debruge at 04:49 PM | Comments (16)
June 27, 2005
King Kong
Nice monkey.
It certainly beats a man in an ape suit, but the giant CG gorilla in Peter Jackson's new King Kong trailer isn't up to Lord of the Rings standards. Not yet, at least, but chances are, the digital effects featured in this first glimpse of the movie (which debuted across all the NBC-owned networks at 8:59pm ET tonight) won't be finished until much closer to the film's December 14 release date.
Posted by Peter Debruge at 06:01 PM | Comments (0)
Elizabethtown
Cameron Crowe must have pissed himself when he saw Garden State last summer. In fact, we might as well start calling Crowe's latest "Bluegrass State" -- that's how much his new movie Elizabethtown looks like Zach Braff's impressive debut. When it comes to nailing the anxieties and fears of a generation, it's hard to top Garden State, and yet Crowe still seems determined to try. The similarities are uncanny. Consider this:
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Posted by Peter Debruge at 04:28 AM | Comments (187)
June 26, 2005
What's on My TiVo
You can tell a lot about a person by what he keeps stored on his DVR. I keep mine stockpiled with movies that aren't on DVD (although I don't always get around to watching them). The sucker claims to hold 80 hours, but I seem to have squeezed quite a bit more than that into storage. Here's what's on there now...
[And while we're on the subject of entertainment advertising, check out all the limits on TiVo's carefully constructed brand image.]
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Posted by Peter Debruge at 11:45 AM | Comments (1)
June 25, 2005
Welcome!
There’s no question: Trailers are the best part of going to the movies, period. Most times, they’re better than the movies they advertise. When you compare what your imagination can do with 2 ½ minutes of carefully selected scenes from an upcoming movie to the finished product, your imagination wins out every time.
But nobody said it was easy picking the right clips to get an audience excited to see yet another blockbuster – or, for that matter, to give them reason to consider an obscure foreign film or documentary. That doesn’t even take into account all the work that goes into editing, narrating, and scoring a trailer. There's a fine art to giving audiences a good reason to part with their hard-earned 10 bucks (although I’d argue that getting to see half a dozen new trailers before the show makes up for almost any dud).
So that brings us to the purpose of this site. I've created Movie Trailer Trash as the place to turn for commentary on the latest and greatest trailers on the web, with added insights on classic previews and how the movie advertising racket works. My name is Peter Debruge. I’m a Los Angeles-based film critic who’s been on the movie beat since 1996, writing for magazines like Premiere, Entertainment Weekly, and Life.
I first launched Movie Trailer Trash back in late 2000 as a companion piece to my undergraduate honors thesis at the University of Texas. Based on dozens of interviews with professionals who work in the trailer business, I intended it as a forum to celebrate (and criticize) the art of movie trailer advertising, but the site's sat stagnant for the past four years. As of today, I’m overhauling it to offer up-to-the-minute coverage of breaking trailers on the web.
So stay tuned, come back often, and be sure to share your comments!
Posted by Peter Debruge at 11:24 AM | Comments (16)
